E30 Zone

Was working with taxi driver today outside his house on the A12 and we heard the an engine noise in the distance coming towards us.

Initially thought it was a motorbike but as it cam closer we realised it was something really special.

Initially I thought it was an E30 M3 with a carbon airbox and some very lairy engine spec.

Turned out to be an E46 m3 CSL.

These things make the most amazing noise!! They sound so so different to a normal E46 M3.

Awesome awesome car!

i know what you mean theres one in the town neer me and you can her it comming miles off! very nice car

Awesome sound ain't they!!

I'd replace the E30 for a black one no problem!

I remember hearing one at full chat at the ring! But the ring taxi sounded better

For a while there I thought you was going to say it was me, been up and down the A12 recently like a nutter, damn would have been some good promotion but I agree them cars do sound good

The owner of a local jap tuning firm (nemesis) had one, always used to see it smoking around. Stunning cars.

Ive driven one of these, (albeit about a 1/2 a mile!) but goddamn they make a good noise! Proof that all engines should breath through carbon fibre and ITB's!

yes folks the CSL is a true weapon, although iv heard stories from people who have drivven both who say they are not that much quicker than a stock m3?

nevertheless, anything alpha N as standard is going to be an animal isnt it!

the m3 csl isnt just about straight line performance.. i guess kinda along the line of the evo 3

never been in one unfortunately

I saw a csl canning it round castle coombe last year, it was eating everything on the track and sounded truely evil
love it

Heard from quite a few different sources that they are very tricky at the limit though, and also very tricky to know just where that limit is.

Probably not really that good as a quick road car (an e46 m3cs a better choice?) but a great rich boys track car.
Sound superb too!

Seems to be a trait of recent M-cars that they're lairy beasts rather than superb precise handling weapons a la E30 M3

See one in Bedford not to long ago, I was with a work collegue, who really aint got a scooby about cars, let alone bmw's, so he just could not understand my delight at seeing a CSL down my local high street, it was stunning The chap who was driving it, knew it too...

Pal

Sal CSL's have carbon airboxes and run Alpha-n

Andrew

I know! You can see why I've been going on about Carbon airboxes for the E30.

It's got me thinking about getting one for my 3.8 aswell. However, no one makes one that I know of but if there is one im buying it!

Sal

just a quick one,does any one have a paint code for the csl grey/silver please

Sal I know someone who could custom build you a carbon Air Box but it will probably cost £1000, out of my league and price range or i would have one on my car already.

M5pilot wrote:I know! You can see why I've been going on about Carbon airboxes for the E30.

It's got me thinking about getting one for my 3.8 aswell. However, no one makes one that I know of but if there is one im buying it!

Sal

Have a look at this thread

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=68392

Once again, the CSLs have got an awesome raw to them,

i remember someone telling me that one got Black flagged because it was too loud!!! Good effort!!

We have a customer who comes into our dealership!

proper lush!!

Lordschleife wrote:Heard from quite a few different sources that they are very tricky at the limit though, and also very tricky to know just where that limit is.

Probably not really that good as a quick road car (an e46 m3cs a better choice?) but a great rich boys track car.
Sound superb too!

Seems to be a trait of recent M-cars that they're lairy beasts rather than superb precise handling weapons a la E30 M3

I own a M3 CSL and would disagree with your statements. I have entered some track events and hillclimbs this year (won a nice event last week : start on a proper race track, race through the pits, continue on a tight kart track and finally end on a wet skid pan - beat some seriously modified Subaru STI's, TVR Chimera Race Car on full slicks, Lotus 7s and various other race cars)

At these events I disable the DSC (stability control), so no computer interence, except on the wet skip pan.

The car gives early feedback that it will lose the back end, you simply back off to about half throttle and then regulate the power slide very easily - have quite a bit of video footage of me doing this.

Where I do agree with your "tricky" statement is if you showboat by slamming the accelerator to get more sideways, the car will jerk back VERY quickly once you go off the accelerator.

If understeer occurs (only a problem when the tyres are cold) you also get nice feedback, although I have to admit with DSC off you will still most likely go onto the grass even when you go off the accelerator.

I would not recommend the CSL as a track car though. The brakes go off after about 5-6 laps for two reasons that I can see (a) there are no brake cooling ducts and (b) the standard brake pads are too f***ing hard (after 25,000 kms they are still only half worn down)

On the race track I take the corners at roughly the same speed in my CSL and my modified Alpina B3 2.7, however on public roads I take corners substantially faster in my CSL, it is an awesome road car. The reason is that the DSC is amazing, without it the car would have been written off numerous times already.

I had a normal E46 M3 before and that was a very unimpressive handler - my brother even beat me through a corner in his X5 4.8is (the M3 was losing front end grip).

Andreas how can u have a B3 2.7?! imported from europe?

Simon13 wrote:Andreas how can u have a B3 2.7?! imported from europe?

BMW South Africa built 15 Alpina B3s under license. Mine is No 12.

They also made some 333i in this country which is another Aplina model.

Interesting to hear a different opinion of the car Andreas

Cant believe they didn't fit cooling ducts to a car like that as std though after all the weight saving effort/r-tyres etc

Having said that most cars need a pad/fluid upgrade when taking them to the track whatever

Lordschleife, you might be interested in another fact. On the standard e46 M3, even though the front spoiler has the ducts to the brakes, BMW blocks them off inside.
On my previous M3 both were closed off, on another guy's M3 I saw that only one duct was blocked.

My personal idea is that it is BMW's way of "discouraging" owners from taking their cars to track days. I only enter my CSL on time trial events where you do 1 timed lap per hour.

REEDY wrote:Once again, the CSLs have got an awesome raw to them,

i remember someone telling me that one got Black flagged because it was too loud!!! Good effort!!

We have a customer who comes into our dealership!

proper lush!!

I think that might be Billy Searles Dad's car, not seen it in the flesh though!

They do sound awesome. But then so does an E30 M3 with a Carbon airbox, like a touring car, what could be better!!?

source : www.m3csl.de

Its the flap in the inlet that opens when you press the Sport button that makes them sound awesome.

This Google video link is still one of my favourite videos. Sounds fabulous and the guy is a very good (suspect he has a race licence)

>> CSL @ Ring <<

>> Google link to "Mr Carbon"'s Supercharged CSL <<

Sounds like a Bike www.loaded.se has some more pics/vids

What a brilliantly intoxicating 9 mins i'm now going to piston heads to see if i can have one!!!

I have a good friend with a CSL and the brakes are indeed shite as standard, but, the AP conversion for them is excellent and sorts the issue.

Its an awesome track car, I think there's some footage here: http://www.justgofaster.com/Media/Video ... fault.aspx have a look at Bedford GT 2005